ORL quiz
This photo was taken c. 1949. What street is this? A good clue might be the "Alpine" marquis, which suggests that it was a movie theater--one I've never heard of. Click to enlarge. (Photo submitted by Ken Dickey)
posted by M. | 9:04 AM
10 Comments:
Downtown Chester.
Ok, I admit it, I cheated. I found this online:
The original theatre, called the Lincoln Theatre because of its location on the old
Lincoln Highway that ran through the center of Chester, was later named the Alpine. The
building was first used as a livery stable and then became the Arner-Bower Funeral Home
until a fire in 1916. The building was repaired enough to house the Chester China for
a few years. The old Lincoln Theatre was quite a place, having been a livery stable.
It was not unusual for rats to make an appearance during the shows. The Saturday matinee
for 10 cents was very popular, especially when they had a Western, plus serial stories
that ran for 10 or 12 Saturdays.
As an added attraction during the Depression, the theatre had dish night once a week,
giving away a piece of local pottery, anticipating that the person receiving it would
come often enough to collect a whole set. Amateur nights were held when anyone who
wanted to could perform. Buster Brown and his dog performed on Saturday afternoons
while they were in town to promote Buster Brown shoes. The Alpine closed when outdoor
theatres and television became more popular.
Here's the site..it was pretty interesting reading:
http://ftp.rootsweb.ancestry.com/pub/usgenweb/wv/hancock/history/chester.txt
mulberry street
Good Morning is correct. Main street Chester. My granddad worked at the Alpine theater. It was all between 5th and 6th street in Chester I believe.
Isn't it sad how these traditions (like giving away dishware or glasses in boxes of soap powder, which I remember) have gone by the wayside?
We are so much more sophisticated today but I'm not sure that's better.
I remember going to a movie theater when we lived in Youngstown (1959 or so) and they had live performers on the stage in between the movies.
We rode the city bus to downtown Youngstown, four KIDS (oldest one probably 12), and no one had to worry.
I remember the "Jewel Tea" man and the milk man and the Watkins spice man coming to the house to sell my mom wares.
And although I wasn't born during the Depression, I do remember getting glasses in soap powder and Green Stamps and going to cash them in, debating about what we were going to get for our "loot."
I just don't know that we really are better off today.
Matt
This theater in Chester was also patronized by Wellsville and E L O natives as well when the streetcars would run through the towns. I read this in a book written by a Wellsville resident a while back. Notice that some of the buildings in that pic are still standing in Chester today. The buildings are so close together as they are in many of our towns.
Does anyone remember getting saucers and cups in the Quaker oats boxes. Did you know that those came from the Pioneer Pottery that Quaker Oats owned at the time. Also Quaker Oats today is owned by Pepsico,as are so many different food items today which are owned by big conglomerates.What ever happened to the little company which survived because of their sole selling of one product?Thank goodnes Quaker Oats sold the pottery before it became part of something else and was closed.Pioneer is now owene by the Bickles.
JoBob, I remember all that too and I'm only in my mid 40s.
How cool it was to get a glass or a dish towel in a box of soap powder, yeah, our mom used to let us dig for the loot!
And I remember when the toys in the Cracker Jack box were more than just a piece of paper, and also when you could go around the neighborhood and collect pop bottles and cash them in for candy money.
And I definitely remember the Jewel Tea man and the milk man.
Kids today are way more into instant gratification, and I think they are really not all the better for it.
Jobob,
Hell, I'm 36, and I know better. I know that this is the Age of Illusions. You had it better. We all did.
Good Morning: I forgot about the dish towels! But yes, now I recall rooting around in the box of soap powder to find the dish towel! Do you recall what the soap was? I can't (unfortunately my mom is now gone. My sister, six years older, would probably remember).
I can't remember ever eating Cracker Jacks. I don't think we ever had them as kids. We really didn't get snacks and NEVER pop (my dad insisted it ate out your stomach). We occasionally were allowed a bag of Blue Star chips and a "colored" pop, like orange, cherry or grape. In his infinite wisdom, Dad thought those "fruit" pops wouldn't hurt us like Coke or Pepsi. Ha-ha-ha!
I'm talking maybe once a month or even longer in between snacks! Not like today where my snack cupboard is FILLED for the grandkids!
We lived a very simple, very innocent life back then.
jobob, the soap powder that my mom bought that always had either dish towels or glasses was Fab. She even used it for doing the dishes until somewhere in the 70's when all the new fangled liquid dish soaps came out on the market.
I can also remember that they shopped at Valu-King all the time. They would save their store receipts and turn them in to get things like cookware or encyclopedia and the year books that went along with them.
Things were much better back then, even if we didn't know it. Now it's just a "me first" or "what I want counts" society.
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